Creating Plant Lists

As described in Concept: Plant Definition and Plant Database Integration, plant definitions are associated with plant records from the plant database. When editing the plant definition, click Get Plant Data to associate the definition with a record in the database. While the first option, which allows you to select the plant directly from the database, is the recommended workflow, plant lists are another means of connecting the plant definition to the plant database.

Another way of creating a plant list is to save a found set from the plant database with the Find > Save Current Find database command.

Creating plant lists from the entire set, or from found sets, in the plant database means there is a smaller subset of plants to choose from. Create as many plant lists as necessary.

Plant lists are created from the plant database; plant lists can also be created automatically based on plant category.

To create a plant list from the plant database:

1. Open the plant database as described in Accessing the Plant Database.

2. Search for the plants to include in the plant list (see Searching for Plants). The plant list is created from a found set of records, or from all the plant records. Larger plant lists take longer to load into the Vectorworks program.

3. Select the File > Create Vectorworks Plant List database command.

The Create Plant List dialog box opens. Provide a name for the plant list.

4. Click OK.

The plant list file is a tab-delimited file saved in the location of the plant database.

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Plant Lists from Categories

To create plant lists based on plant category:

1. Open the plant database as described in Accessing the Plant Database.

2. Select the File > Create Category Plant Lists database command.

A plant list is created for each category. If there are no plants found for a category, no list is created for that category. Plants without a category assigned, or with a custom category, are not included. In addition, an “All” plant list contains all plants regardless of category.

3. The plant lists are tab-delimited files saved in the location of the plant database.

Plant Lists for Existing Tree Species

By default, all plants in the tree Category of the database are included in the Species Data dialog box for access by the Existing Tree tool. If desired, search the plant database for the trees you require, and then add only these trees to the existing tree species list.

To create a custom existing tree species list:

1. Open the plant database as described in Accessing the Plant Database.

2. Search for the trees to include in the existing tree species list (see Searching for Plants).

3. Select the File > Create ‘Existing Tree’ List database command. This customizes the existing tree list to use only the plants found in the database search.

Using Plant List Data in Vectorworks Landmark

Plant lists can be used to update a plant definition with data from the plant database.

To use plant list data in a plant definition:

1. Create the plant definition as described in Creating Plant Definitions.

2. In the Edit Plant Definition dialog box, click Get Plant Data.

The Get Plant Data dialog box and the plant database open. Click Select Plant Data in the Get Plant Data dialog box to open the Select Plant Data dialog box.

►    Click to show/hide the parameters.

Parameter	Description
Plant List	Select the plant list that contains the required plant information; all plant lists created from the plant database and saved in the database location are listed. A progress bar indicates the status of the plant list import when it is used for the first time.
Open Plant Database	Opens the Vectorworks plant database, for locating plant information and creating plant lists
Explore	Opens Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) to the folder containing generated plant lists
Name List Display	Toggles between plant list display by Latin name or common name
Name Find	Finds a plant in the plant name list by matching typed characters
Name List	Lists the plants included in the currently selected plant list. Select a plant to view its botanical information on the right, and to use that data in the plant definition.
Plant Data	Displays the botanical information (from the plant database) for the plant selected in the name list. The number of available plant data fields varies, depending on global region.

3. Select the plant name and data to include in the plant definition, and click OK.

The plant definition is updated with the data from the plant database.

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Plant Definition: General Options

The Plant Database

Specifying Existing Tree Species Information

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